Daily Dothttp://www.dailydot.com/Daily Dot Articleen-usSat, 31 Dec 2011 00:25:48 +0000How Rob Zerban got out the vote on Reddithttp://www.dailydot.com/politics/rob-zerban-paul-ryan-sopa-reddit/<p><img src='//cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/2f/14/2f14cc277d0dd8952f44ed01ff1df542.jpg'></p><p>
Reddit&rsquo;s activism reaches <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/reddit-atheists-doctors-without-borders-charity/">far</a> and <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/reddit-cannabis-community-education/">wide</a>. But in a seemingly new development, its users are now funding a US representative&rsquo;s primary campaign: $5,000 in 36 hours to Rob Zerban, who&rsquo;s aiming to win the Wisconsin US Representatives seat in 2012. And it&rsquo;s essentially due to Zerban&rsquo;s assurance on Reddit that he&rsquo;s against the Stop Online Piracy Act, and that his political opponent stands for it.</p>
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Reddit is particularly irked about SOPA. In addition to going against the Reddit community&rsquo;s general ethos of Internet free speech, one of the site&rsquo;s cofounders<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/politics/reddit-alexis-ohanian-stop-online-piracy-act/"> has said</a> that if the act passes, it will mean the end of Reddit.</p>
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The power of the Reddit community shone last week when it helped shame GoDaddy, a popular webhosting service that had openly supported SOPA, into&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/business/godaddy-sopa-reversal/">reversing</a> that stance.</p>
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Support for Rob Zerban&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/redditors-target-senators-anti-sopa/">started</a> Wednesday, after a group of redditors in r/politics sought to find a politician who supports SOPA to make an example out of. &nbsp;&ldquo;Let&#39;s pick ONE Senator who voted for NDAA/SOPA and destroy him,&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.reddit.com/user/digitalboy">digitalboy</a> wrote.</p>
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(The innocuously named National Defense Authorization Act gives the government new powers against domestic terrorism that critics say would allow it to &ldquo;quash dissent&rdquo; online.)</p>
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The overwhelmingly popular choice was Senator Lindsey Graham, a comment that&nbsp;<a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/ntfzw/lets_pick_one_senator_of_voted_for_ndaasopa_and/c3btbyo">received</a> 1,932 points.</p>
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However, as<a href="http://www.reddit.com/user/mrwatkins83"> mrwatkins83</a> pointed out, &ldquo;Graham isn&#39;t up for re-election in 2012 ... Shouldn&#39;t someone actually facing the voters be the target of such an operation?&rdquo;</p>
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The next most-popular<a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/ntfzw/lets_pick_one_senator_of_voted_for_ndaasopa_and/c3bu4xo"> choice</a> was Bob Corker, a senator from Tennessee. That idea received 1,324 points. The comment nominating Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI), on the other hand, only<a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/ntfzw/lets_pick_one_senator_of_voted_for_ndaasopa_and/c3bu3p5"> got</a> 30 points.</p>
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But no opponent of Corker showed up to talk to supporters on Reddit. Rob Zerman, who&rsquo;s running against Ryan, <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/nu501/i_am_rob_zerban_challenger_to_rep_paul_ryan_rwi/">did</a>, inviting redditors to an ask-me-anything interview, or AMA.</p>
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Many of Zerban&rsquo;s comments during the AMA were clearly in Reddit&rsquo;s political wheelhouse. &ldquo;Money is not speech and corporations are not people,&rdquo; he<a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/nu501/i_am_rob_zerban_challenger_to_rep_paul_ryan_rwi/c3c01v0"> said</a>. &ldquo;We need to get the money out of the political process. That is why I support publicly funded elections.&rdquo;</p>
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Not only were his pro-transparency and anti-corruption stances appealing to redditors, Zerban also spoke Reddit&rsquo;s language. He&nbsp;<a href="http://i.imgur.com/NOjjH.jpg">linked</a> to cat pictures, and used slang like &ldquo;<a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/nu501/i_am_rob_zerban_challenger_to_rep_paul_ryan_rwi/c3c0uoc">I see what you did there ಠ_ಠ</a>.&rdquo;</p>
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&ldquo;I think you&#39;ll fit in well here,&rdquo; responded<a href="http://www.reddit.com/user/jayce513"> jayce513</a>.</p>
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During the interview, <a href="http://www.reddit.com/user/Dippyskoodlez">Dippyskoodlez</a> noticed Zerban&rsquo;s site was hosted by GoDaddy. Zerban<a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/OperationPullRyan/comments/nveew/an_open_letter_from_rob_zerban_to_godaddycom/"> responded by transferring</a> his site from the company, and published an open letter explaining why.</p>
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Today, Zerban&nbsp;<a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/nwez5/thank_you_reddit_youve_helped_me_raised_over_5000/">announced</a> that redditors had raised $5,000 for his campaign since his AMA.</p>
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&ldquo;[J]oin me in the effort to defeat Paul Ryan in 2012!&rdquo; he said.</p>
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It&rsquo;s not clear if $5,000 will do much for Zerban&rsquo;s campaign. A Democrat, he still has to win his party&rsquo;s primary before he can even face off against Ryan in 2012.</p>
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That amount &ldquo;probably couldn&#39;t buy a TV spot in Wisconsin. [Just] a small radio spot, or some strategic mailings,&rdquo; said Bev Harris, the founder of a nonpartisan political watchdog group <a href="http://www.blackboxvoting.org/">Black Box Voting</a>, told the Daily Dot.</p>
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Zerban&rsquo;s approval on Reddit might be worth more, though.</p>
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&ldquo;Really effective communications doesn&#39;t always take a lot of money,&rdquo; Harris said. &ldquo;Social media can do a lot if you apply it right.&rdquo;</p>
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For his part, Ryan&rsquo;s camp has mostly refused comment about his support for SOPA. Yesterday, in light of Zerban&rsquo;s AMA, a spokesman for Ryan<a href="http://www.betabeat.com/2011/12/29/rep-paul-ryan-not-a-supporter-of-sopa-says-spokesperson/"> said</a> the Congressman &ldquo;is not a cosponsor&rdquo; of SOPA, and &ldquo;[h]e remains committed to advancing policies which protect free speech and foster innovation online.&rdquo;</p>
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<em>Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/robzerban/">Rob Zerban for Congress</a></em></p>
kcollier@dailydot.com (Kevin Collier)Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:25:48 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/politics/rob-zerban-paul-ryan-sopa-reddit/PoliticsReddit